Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-01-13

sponsibillty OF letting the contractors
have number Of the men to WORK at
sixty-five cents per day, working in the
hills and cutting stone. By this, as one
of the means at least, we have succeeded
in getting the structure built of the finest
granite material in the world. We nave
also been enabled to make the prisoners
thus employed not only self-supporting,
but have realized Sl5, 900 clear profit from
their earnings, and st the same time edu-
Gated number OF them as granite cut
tiers.
The Nineteenth legislature failed to make
appropriations to pay for carrying the
prisoners from the jsils to the peniten-
tiaries, and was compelled to use from
the general peni-entiary appropriation
the sum of $500 to meet this demand.
1t is often said that "the penitentiary
question must be settled" The peniten-
tlary question will never be settled so
long as penitentiary is maintained and
men are sent to it. The prison question
is one that has ever and will continue for
ever to be veXed one. The
chief trouble is, how to pre-
vent their industry coming in
conflict with free labor. If the convlcts
are placed within the walls and forced to
produce or manufacture anything the
world wants, a conflict must arise with
outside labor. They might be put to
work al something the world does not
want, and in that event no conflict would
arise, but how would slch labor support
them? And yet this is not all; there are
some who can never be kept inside the
walls with proper regard for their health.
Farms belonging to the state is the only
field for them, and therefore | recon-
mend the purchase of additional lands to
work them on.
We now have a number of prisoners
well skilled in cutting stone, and in view
of the fact that additional penitentisries
will have to be built, recommend the
purchase of the water power at Marble
Falls and the granite quarrles in Burne.
county, If they can be had at reasonable
figures. Ample power can, be had there
Tor any amount of machinery, aud the
granite industry will afford labor for a
large number of people for an indefinite
period. The Burnett granite is in ali re-
spects the equal of the red SEQ CHI granite
50 extensively imported into this coun-
try, and it is as ineXhaustible as it is eX-
cellent, and the location being admirably
adapted to the purpose mentioned think
the legislature would subserve the best
interests of the commonwealth in pur-
chasing the land as suggested.
1t is not clear that the money necessary
to place the clnvicts within the walls Can
or should be now raised by taxation
Storms and drouths have so crippled our
people that they are scarcely in position
to carry out this theory, and the money
necessary to effect the charge can not be
| borrowed, without an amendment to the
constitution. 1t will take several millions
of dollars to make the walls and buy TIT
necessary stock and machinery to put the
| prisoners to work.
| So far as relates to conyicts that prop
erly beloUg to the penitenliary, L doubt
| the prOpriety of attempting a general
| system of road making; too many prison
guards and camps would be required, es-
capeS would be Numerous and general
infusion would arise; bu. l recommt nd
a change in the laws and a reduction OF
the number of felony offenses. Make tint
minor penitentiary offenses misdemean
ors, provide for each county working it;
roads with the prisoners convicted under
this heading, but never allow the system
thus formulated to be branch of TIT
penitentiary management. By thus re
ducing felony offenses you will very sen
sibly decrease the present army of con
victs, and by employing county convicts
! to work your roads you will make then
self-supporting and healthy, and at the
same time develop system Of public
highways which will soon be valuable
acquisition to the state.
GREER COUNTY.
Under the act Of the legislature passed
May 3, 1882, l appointed Messrs. j. 7
Brt caenrldge, w. S. Herndon, G. Z
freeman and W. II. Burgess as commits
siOners, to meet a Ike commission APP
pointed by the president of the United
States, to locate and n ark the boundary
between the Iadian Territory and TIE
state of Texas. The commission on the
part of the United States was composed
Of Maj S. NJ. Mansfield, Maj. w. r. Liv.
ermore, Lieut.. Thomas L. Casey and
Lieut.. Lansing H Beach.
The order detailing tGat commission
on the part of the federal government was
not satisfactory to me, and on the 18th OF
December, 1885, addressed the secretary
of war the following note:
EXECUTIVE OFFICE, STATE OF TEXAS,
AUSTIN, December A. 1885.
Hon. William c. EGdicott, Secretary OF War
WASH Gton, ID. C.:
SIR: l have the honor to acknowledge
the receipt of your favor of the 9Th in
slant, in which you inform me that the
president is of opinion that the order de-
IaiIiuS the commissioners in the Greer
county boundary question Is sufficiently
comprehensive. | cannot agree with thi,
conclusion II your statement that the as
certainment of the true Red river, and
there marking the point where the
Tooth meridian crosses it, Is the
whole duty devOlv!nS upon the commits
sion. Certainly you are correct as far as
you 90, bu3 the scope Of the treaty be-
tween the United S ates and Spain, of
1919, and the acts of congress and the
legislature of Texas, devolves another
duty vital t. correct understanding OF
the treaty. 1t YVES well known, no doubt,
to both contracting parties that Melish's
map was not correct. He knew there was
Red river of Louisiana, and that it had
source, but where the source was, or
the tributaries or branches, if any, were
wholly unknown to him and to the con.
tracing part es. This is the conclusion
drawn from the language of the treaty.
If the two parties had intended that the
bounda y should be at the point where the
true Tooth meridian crossed the
river, it would have been surplusage aud
quite unnecessary to have added, at